Many nations shall come from far to the name of the Lord God, with gifts in their hands, even offerings to the King of heaven. Blessed are they that love thee; they shall rejoice in thy peace. Let my soul bless God, the mighty King.

For Jerusalem shall be builded with sapphire and emerald, and thy walls with precious stone; and thy towers and battlements with pure gold. And the squares of Jerusalem shall be paved with beryl and carbuncle and stones of Ophir, and all her streets shall say, Hallelujah, and shall sing praise, saying, Blessed be God, who hath exalted thee for ever.

TOBIT xiii. (selections).

§ 10. The Song of Judith.

Begin unto my God with timbrels, sing unto my Lord with cymbals: tune unto him psalm and praise; exalt him and call upon his name. The Lord, he is the God that breaketh the battles; he putteth his camp in the midst of his people, to deliver them out of the hand of the pursuers.

Asshur came out of the mountains from the north, he came with ten thousands of his army, the multitude whereof stayed the torrents and their horsemen covered the hills.

He boasted that he would burn up my borders and kill my young men with the sword, and dash the sucking child against the ground, and make mine infants a prey and my virgins a spoil. But the Almighty Lord brought them to nought by the hand of a woman.

For their champion fell not by the young men, neither did the sons of the Titans smite him, nor did mighty giants set upon him; but Judith subdued him with the beauty of her countenance. For she put off the garment of her widowhood for the exaltation of them that were oppressed in Israel, and anointed her face and bound her hair in a tire, and took a linen vesture to deceive him. Her sandals ravished his eyes, her beauty took his heart prisoner, the falchion passed through his neck.

The Persians quaked at her boldness, and the Medes were confounded at her hardihood.

Then mine afflicted ones shouted, my weak ones cried aloud and were dismayed; they lifted up their voices and were overthrown. The sons of handmaidens did pierce them through, and wounded them as runagates: they perished by the battle of the Lord.

I will sing unto the Lord a song of thanksgiving: O Lord, thou art great and glorious, wonderful in strength, invincible. Let all thy creation serve thee; for thou spakest and it was made, thou sentest forth thy spirit and it was created, and there is none that shall resist thy voice. For the mountains shall be moved from their foundations in the waters, and the rocks shall melt as wax at thy presence; but thou showest mercy unto them that fear thee. For all sacrifice is too small for a sweet savour, and all the fat sufficeth not for a burnt offering, but he that feareth the Lord is great continually.

Woe to the nations that rise up against my kindred! The Lord Almighty will take vengeance on them in the day of judgement.

§ 11. True Wisdom.

JUDITH XVi. 2-17.

Love righteousness, ye that be judges of the earth, think ye of the Lord in sincerity, and in singleness of heart seek him. For he is found of them that tempt him not, and showeth himself unto such as do not mistrust him. For crooked devices separate from God, and his power, when it is tried, putteth to shame the foolish. Because into a soul that deviseth evil wisdom shall not enter, nor dwell in a body that is debtor unto sin. For the holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit, and remove from thoughts that are without understanding, and will be put to rebuke when unrighteousness cometh in.

Wisdom is a loving spirit, and will not acquit a blasphemer of his words, for God is witness of his reins and a true discerner of his heart and a hearer of his tongue. Because the spirit of the Lord filleth the earth, and that which upholdeth all things hath knowledge of every voice. Therefore he that speaketh unrighteous things cannot be hid: neither shall justice, when it punisheth, pass him by.

WISDOM i. 1-8.

§ 12. A Fool's Philosophy.

The ungodly say among themselves, reasoning not aright, Our life is short and grievous, and when

a man cometh to his end there is no remedy: neither was any man known to have returned from the grave. For we were born at all adventure, and hereafter we shall be as though we had never been; because the breath in our nostrils is as a smoke, and reason as a spark in the beating of our heart: which, being extinguished, our body shall be turned to ashes, and our spirit shall vanish as thin air, and our name shall be forgotten in time and no man shall have our works in remembrance, and our life pass away as the remnant of a cloud, and be scattered as a mist that is scattered by the beams of the sun and overcome by the heat thereof.

For our time is like the passing of a shadow, and after our end there is no returning, seeing it is fast sealed and no man turneth it again. Come, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are, and zealously enjoy the world even as in youth. Let us fill ourselves with costly wine and perfumes, and let no flower of the spring pass us by; let us crown ourselves with rosebuds, or ever they be withered; let not one of us go without his part in our revel; in every place let us leave tokens of our joyfulness: because this is our portion, and our lot is this. WISDOM ii. 1-9.

§ 13.

Only the actions of the just

Smell sweet and blossom in the dust.

The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no evil touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die, and their

departure was taken for calamity, and their going forth from us to be utter destruction; but they are in peace. For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality; and having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded; for God hath proved them and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace hath he tried them, and as a burnt offering hath he received them. In the time of their visitation they shall shine forth, and run to and fro like sparks among the stubble. They shall judge nations, and have dominion over peoples, and the Lord shall reign over them for ever.

WISDOM iii. 1-8.

§ 14. The Vanity of the Ungodly, and the Praise of the Righteous.

Then shall the righteous man stand in great boldness before the face of such as afflicted him. When they see it, they shall fear and shall be amazed at the strangeness of his salvation, so far beyond all that they looked for. And they, repenting and groaning for anguish of spirit among themselves, shall say, This was he whom aforetime we had in derision and made a proverb of reproach! We fools accounted his life madness, and his end to be without honour: now is he numbered among the sons of God, and his lot among the saints!

Verily we erred from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness shined not for us, and the sun of righteousness rose not upon us.

Yea, we